Monday, 25 March 2013

Moto Guzzi MGS-01 - Cooking Goose

Booming Italian twin-cylinder
trackday terrors have generally been the specialty of Ducati over the last 30
years; you might picture the odd orange Laverda parallel twin thrown
in when that company is flirting with solvency, but generally Ducati is the
go-to Latin track machine. Rarely do you picture a big, air-cooled, transverse
V-twin out of Mandello de Lario thundering out of a corner and scything past
the opposition. Moto Guzzi generally presents an air of staunch traditionalism,
a sort of Italian BMW that is somehow more passionate than the Munich brand but
far more rational than the exuberant offerings from Bologna. Guzzi riders are
weathered, skilled old men who thump along the backroads, do their own repairs,
and generally abstain from high-speed shenanigans. Or at least that’s the
stereotype, one that was briefly blown into the weeds by the spectacularly
uncharacteristic MGS-01 Corsa.

For a brief period in the mid-2000s the
MGS-01 (Moto Guzzi Sport model number one) was held high as the future of Moto Guzzi – a paradoxical break from
tradition that upheld the time-honoured Guzzi design values. It was fast,
beautiful, exclusive, expensive, and inspired much desire among red-blooded
riders with an affinity for Italianate machines. It was a tantalizing glimpse
at a more exotic and sporting direction for Moto Guzzi that ultimately was not
to be.

During this period the most sporting
Guzzi you could purchase was the V11 Sport, which was more of a heavyweight
café-racer than a true sports bike. The MGS-01 owed more of a debt to the
earlier Daytona 1000, one of the most focused sports Guzzis of all time that was developed in
partnership with legendary Guzzi tuner Dr. John Wittner.

Dr. John, as he was affectionately called
around the paddocks, was famed for using inappropriate equipment to compete at
the highest level of production racing. A Pennsylvania dentist by trade, but
trained as an engineer, Wittner was a stalwart Guzzi fanatic who believed that
with sufficient development a classic air-cooled big-block Guzzi twin could win
races against more modern machinery. He developed a series of racers that
competed in Superbike classes in the 1980s with remarkable success considering
their specification – he insisted on tuning the existing air-cooled, pushrod,
transverse V-Twin, using the traditional drive shaft. His first successes were
in fact with tuned production Le Mans models that were quite successful in endurance racing, which inspired Wittner to abandon
his dental practice to focus on racing. After much development the result was a
thundering bruiser of a racer that looked ungainly compared to the lithe
opposition, but had the performance and the handling to win and stun the
competition that never imagined they could be overtaken by a goddanged Guzzi
built by a polite dentist from New England.

Wittner subsequently joined the Moto Guzzi
factory and helped develop a modernized, but still unmistakably Guzzi, engine
for a limited-production superbike. After years of secretive development the
Daytona 1000 LE was released in 1993, and received mixed reactions. Here was the
fastest, sportiest, and most powerful street-legal Guzzi ever produced… which
wasn’t saying much. The last great sports machine Guzzi had introduced was the
Le Mans, which had been on the market so long it couldn’t keep up with the
goalposts – it had gone from being a cutting edge sport machine to a stately
gentleman’s express by virtue of the fast development of the Eastern
competition. The Daytona was like a modern Le Mans – long wheelbase, quite a bit
of weight for a sport bike, with a motor that had useable power rather than
eyeball-flattening thrust.

Performance was adequate but it was never
going to blow off Ducatis on the backroads, let alone the multicylinder rockets
from Asia. The new fuel-injected 992cc engine was, however, a leap forward. The
traditional Guzzi traits were retained – air-cooled 90-degree twin set
transversely across the frame, shaft drive, and pushrods activating
rocker-driven valves. The big-block crankcases and crankshaft were carried
over. The difference was a totally new head design that had a high-cam (or ‘cam
in head’) overhead valve layout. Each cylinder featured modern four-valve per
cylinder combustion chambers and flat-top pistons, but all four valves were
driven by a single belt-driven cam on the inside of the vee. A pair of short
pushrods connected the high cam to a set of rocker arms, which operated two
valves each. The result is unique and a strange blend of old and new, but it
worked well. The Daytona produced 95hp, which remains respectable power for a
litre sized air-cooled twin. A 1064cc version in later models cracked 100 hp.

The Daytona LE became the RS, which then
begat the Centauro. The Centauro continued using the 992cc “OHC 8V” (Guzzi
always mislabelled the high-cam as an overhead-cam) motor in a more relaxed
sport-cruiser design. The oddball Centauro was produced from 1996 to 2000 and
never achieved much success, owing to a strange design, mediocre handling, and
a high price tag. Aside from being strangely styled it wasn’t particularly
noteworthy – but it would contribute its motor to the new MGS-01.

Which brings us, in my usual roundabout
way, back to MGS-01. In 2002 Moto Guzzi opened a new design centre dubbed the
Style Laboratory. Here Guzzi would encourage the best and brightest stylists
and engineers to build interesting concepts around Guzzi hardware. They handed
things off to a team of five designers led by renowned Guzzi tuners (Giuseppe)
Ghezzi & Brian (Bruni Saturno) and the MGS concept was the result.
Introduced at the 2002 Intermot motorcycle show, the prototype causes a
sensation. It was powered by a hotted-up Centauro 8V engine with shaft drive,
but was otherwise all-new.

The elements were unmistakably Guzzi, but
the parts were put together in a way that was unlike anything they had made
before. Sleek, angular bodywork enveloped the cockpit while leaving the motor
unobstructed. A solo seat was perched over a single undertail exhaust. Front
suspension was Ohlins upside down forks with radial mount Brembo brakes, while
out back there was a sizeable aluminium box section swingarm wrapped around the
driveshaft. The wheelbase was around 55 inches with 50/50 weight distribution.
It was a pure sports machine that was clearly intended for the track, but a
headlight hinted at possible street legality.

The press went nuts and it was clear that
building a production version was a viable exercise. Two versions were
announced – a small initial run of Corsa models would be produced with
race-kitted 1200cc engines and track-only equipment. A detuned street-legal
version using the 992cc motor, called the Serie, would be available shortly
after with a projected price of around $17000 USD. The motorcycling world
waited with anticipation for Guzzi’s hottest sport bike since the Daytona.

It took two years to get the ball rolling.
In traditional Italian fashion Moto Guzzi had flirted with bankruptcy off and
on for decades and had had a string of owners over the years. The infamous
Alejandro De Tomaso had owned the brand from 1973 until 2000, when Aprilia
purchased it. The MGS-01 was introduced under Aprilia ownership, but the
company had difficulties with maintaining production and Aprilia had its own
cash-flow problems to deal with. Things looked dire in 2004 when Guzzi was
forced to stop production for a period, but at the end of 2004 Piaggio
purchased the brand and resuscitated the works.

The MGS-01 Corsa production began during
this difficult transitional period. The Corsa was never intended to be a profit
maker for the brand, and was the last thing a barely solvent company should be
building in times of crisis, but despite the difficulties they managed to get
the $25000 Corsa out the door.

The Corsa featured a 1225cc, 100x78mm
version of the 8V motor with hot cams, high compression Cosworth pistons,
lighter internals, a six-speed gearbox (the Centauro and Daytona had five-speed
gearboxes), a reinforced clutch, and upgraded lubrication. The net was 122hp at
8000rpm and a thumping 83 lb/ft a 6500, respectable for a big air-cooled
twin. The chassis featured a box-section aluminium swingarm and steel spine
frame, which doubled as an intake runner. As on the concept bike, there was
Ohlins front and rear, Brembo brakes, and forged aluminium OZ wheels.
Termignoni provided the 2 into 1 undertail exhaust. The production bike looked
even more delectable than the much-lauded Intermot concept, with a gaping black
maw (feeding the oil cooler) replacing the headlamp and carbon-fibre elements
sprinkled throughout.

Reviews were favourable. The performance
was impressive and the handling sharp. Testers noted that motor provided a
broad, useable spread of power that was remarkably tractable for a race engine.
But the weight was considerable for a track bike, over 420 lbs dry. It was
good, but not the best. It was considerably cheaper than the highly-focussed
Ducati-powered missiles from NCR, but the MGS-01 was more of a trackday toy for
wealthy enthusiasts than a turn-key race-winner. It was eligible to compete in
Battle of the Twins and Italian Supertwins and won some races in 2006 and 2007
but otherwise flew under the radar for the most part. After 150 Corsas were
completed new owner Piaggio shut down production in 2005 to focus on more
profitable ventures. The promised street-legal version never came to fruition,
but each year a few rumours sneak out of Mandello and interest in the project
is renewed. Supposedly the assembly line equipment is still in place and
production could be resumed if only the bosses
would give the go ahead…

Now it’s time to descend into the realm of
conjecture and heresay, because what Italian bike would be complete without
some whispered rumours and allegation of mismanagement behind it? The MGS-01
was the last machine to use the 8V Wittner-developed motor, and people have
often wondered what happened to the 8V motor. After the MGS the engine was
quietly forgotten by the factory, and quickly faded into obscurity. The current
Quattro Valvole engine, introduced in the Griso 1200 in 2008, is a new high-cam
mill that shares nothing with the previous design and has a totally different
character. Supposedly, the rumour goes, the original 8V had a very specific
alloy used in the cylinder head to properly dissipate heat from the air-cooled
mill. This recipe was “lost” at some point and never re-formulated, so the final
run of 8V motors used in the Corsa were built from new stock parts in the
warehouse. Once the existing parts supply was exhausted, that’s it, that’s all
– I don’t know what you are talking about, here’s a new engine, fuggedaboudit.
In all likelihood production was simply shelved because it wasn’t profitable
and Piaggio preferred to focus on money-making ventures rather than expensive
sidelines. Since 2005 Guzzi has been recast as a producer of sensible street
bikes and tourers, not uncompromised track toys. Additionally the 8V was
getting a bit long in the tooth and was overdue for an update, lest it be
strangled to death by increasingly tight emissions laws. But the whole “we lost
the blueprints” story makes for a much more interesting, and stereotypically
Italian, tale to share over beers at the pub.

Information about the Corsa is consistently
inconsistent. Supposedly Piaggio pulled the plug in 2005, but you can find what
are claimed to be 2006 and 2007 model year examples (leftover inventory
perhaps?). The original 2004 USD retail was proposed at $23000 – some sources
quote claimed $37000. An archive of the Moto Guzzi USA website quotes $24 990
in 2005. Some say 150 were built, others say only 100, most agree 50 were
earmarked for the US market.

The MGS-01 has become a modern day classic.
While some other limited production homologation specials have plummeted in
value and trade for far less than MSRP, the MGS-01 has maintained consistent
pricing. Today Corsas trade hands for $40 000 plus, and there are still a few
zero-mile examples languishing in showrooms around the world. There are even a
few brave souls who have taken it upon themselves to build “street legal” (in
the flimsiest definition of the term) versions by slapping lights and mirrors
onto Corsas. While many hoped the MGS-01 would become the beginning of a new
direction for Moto Guzzi and the genesis of a line of pure sports machines from
the venerable marque, it was not to be, and the MGS has become an interesting
footnote in Moto Guzzi history. Today Moto Guzzi has refocused on relaxed
tourers and standards, with nary a sport machine in their lineup outside of the
café-styled V7. The prospect of a series of MGS models was a mouth-watering
“what might have been” project, but ultimately it was not to be.

There were rumors around ten years or so ago of a new water-cooled transverse v-twin from Moto Guzzi and I even saw photos of the alleged prototype but haven't seen or heard anything else since. I have a slight suspicion that Cosworth may have been involved with development somewhere too. Maybe just a bunch of empty rumors but it was an exciting thought.

From Giovanni Mariani on the Facebook page: "The Big Bore fitted to the 2007 Daytona winning bike was a one-off 1350cc short stroke version made specifically for racing and was engineered much before of the Millepercento involvement in the Big Bore venture. That engine was developing exactly 167 bhp at the crankshaft @8750 rpm. At Daytona the lack of taller gears compelled us to lift the rev-limit of the ECU to 9400 rpm in order to avoid to hit the limiter on the banks. In this conditions the 1350 engine run faultlessly the whole race with a clear speed advantage over the Dario Marchetti 1098 superbike Works Ducati. What a day for the Guzzi eagle!!!!!"

I don't know that the special aluminum was used for MGS/01 heads. It was necessary - and caused considerable delay - in the development of the Daytona 1000. Street exhaust makes an engine run hotter, thus the problem for the Daytona and not for the MGS/01. The alloy - containing silver - would be listed on the blueprint so it couldn't be lost. I would guess that this engine was put out to pasture because in street form it wouldn't pass Euro 3 emission, implemented in 2005. That's why the street-legal version never made it. Rumor has it that the Aprilia Leonardo scooter's headlight fits the MGS/01 fairing cutout once the oil cooler is relocated. I have heard that 17 of these bikes were imported into the US by Moto Guzzi USA. As for total production, we have seen one purchased out of Germany with a VIN ending in 119 or 129 (can't remember now) and the digit before the M in the VIN was 9, indicating that it is a model year 2009 motorcycle.